Sir Alex Ferguson 'would've done anything' to keep one player at Man Utd and he regrets leaving to this day

A Manchester United player who Sir Alex Ferguson 'would have done anything to keep' still regrets leaving the club to this day.

The day before United announced their plans to build a new 100,000-seater stadium dubbed 'New Trafford', a former player 'celebrated' his 18th anniversary of leaving a playing squad that was in far better shape than it is today.

Ruben Amorim's side drew 1-1 with Arsenal on Sunday and, while they deserved to win the match on balance, have not been able to perform with any consistency and get results.

Failure to win this season's Europa League will mean that United will not be playing in any European competition next season.

It also remains to be seen how much money Amorim will have to spend this summer in order to recruit players to fit his system - and whether can offload players that minority co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe himself admitted are 'overpaid'.

Back in the summer of 2006, legendary former manager Ferguson didn't have that issue, with United still able to attract some of the very best players due to their Premier League and European success.

Sir Alex Ferguson pictured in 2007 alongside assistant manager Carlos Queiroz (Image: Getty)

However, the club would only bring in one player that summer - midfielder Michael Carrick from Tottenham - and the Scot soon needed a new centre forward due to injury issues.

Ferguson managed to seal a two-month loan move for legendary striker Henrik Larsson, who moved to Old Trafford from Helsingborg during the Swedish league's off-season in January 2007.

Larsson quickly became a cult hero at Old Trafford and a popular member of the dressing room, despite only scoring three goals in his 13 games for the club.

Henrik Larsson played for United between January and March 2007 (Image: Getty)

The Swede turned down the opportunity to extend his deal until the end of the season, instead honouring his promise to return to Helsingborg.

But speaking on Sky Sports' 'Transfer Talk' podcast in 2020, Larsson revealed that he now regretted not deciding to stay in Manchester for two more months.

United won that season's Premier League, but the veteran striker did not qualify for a medal as he had only played seven of the required 10 league matches.

He said: "I remember having a talk. Some of the players were involved too.

"I said, 'I really appreciate it, but I can't do it'. I promised Helsingborg and they invested a lot of money for a small club from Sweden to bring me home."

He continued: "I felt obligated to do what I put pen to paper. I promised them I would come back home.

"Even though United is so much bigger, I felt that I couldn't break my promise."

Larsson retired from professional football at Helsingborg in 2009, before returning to the club for two separate spells as their manager."

"The only regret I have in my playing career was that I didn't stay on for the rest of the season, because I think if I did that, I would have been offered a little bit more. Maybe an extension on that."